Evergreen
by GammaKiwi
Summary: So a childish nutter, an engineer-inventor, a fat asshole and a ninja all end up on one team at Beacon... and it doesn't completely end in catastrophe. (No-one from original RWBY canon is exactly the same here. Just thought I'd warn you.)
1. Where Varin and Davy just killed a Grimm

In the middle of a forest clearing, a great black-and-white snake with a head at both ends lay dead.

Some guy in a dark-grey flame-retardant suit was excitedly dancing a wardance over its body, crowing mighty whoops of jubilation. Of course, his head-covering gas mask was muffling every sound he made, making it sound like "MMMMMPH, MMMMMMMMMMMMMMPH, MMMMPH!"

"Good lord, Davy, you look absolutely ridiculous dancing like that," chuckled his companion, a young man wrapped in a viridian cloak, which with the aid of a scarf over his head, covered every inch of his skin save that around his scarlet eyes.

Davy paused his dancing to give Varin an annoyed glare, but due to his face being obscured by the mask it didn't really come through. "Mmmph mmph mphmmph," he snapped, sounding like he may have been irritated.

"Pardon?" was all Varin had to say, a bemused smirk barely visible under his headwrap.

Davy sighed, unzipping his mask and lifting it off, unveiling his own neon-green eyes and horrid einsteinian hair. "I said, you're just jealous," he muttered.

Varin just laughed, a cheerful note echoing through the area. "Oh no. I may be jealous of _some_ aspects of you, but your dancing is not one of them," he smirked.

However, Davy had found something new to preoccupy himself with - an egg. "Whoa, you think this might hatch into a new Taijitu?" he whispered with awe.

"Let's see. We found it next to one, it's spherical - snake eggs usually are - and the corpse now dissolving is partially coiled around it. I'd say you're an idiot for not fully realizing that sooner," Varin snarked, pulling the scarf down and off his mouth to make his voice more audible.

Davy looked wounded. "You don't have to be so _mean_ about it," he whined. But then he perked up, and said more cheerfully, "Speaking of mean, what if we could teach it to _not_ be mean?"

"You imply that antagonism is a taught trait among the Grim." At Davy's confused expression, he elaborated, "That 'meanness', as you called it, is something that Grim have to be taught. Last I checked, it's been scientifically proven that Grim are genetically driven to hate humanity."

"Well, I say that we at least try. If we can tame elephants, we can tame a Grim!" Davy declared, picking up the egg and marching off.

"Fine, just don't come crying to me when Headmaster Hastings makes you biff the thing. Oh, and the temples's this way," Varin called after him, hiking his headwrap back over his mouth and heading northeast, at a right angle to the direction Davy was going to go. _Good lord, THIS is the guy I have to put up with for the next four years? Well, if this conversation is anything to go by, they certainly won't be dull,_ he thought to himself as Davy hastened after him.


	2. Where Varin fights in a training battle

Two battle-ready youths stepped forward from the crowd, prepared to beat the living crap out of eachother. One was wrapped in viridian-green from head to toe - head in a scarf, body in a cloak - with only his scarlet eyes visible. The other was clad in much more traditional clothing, with blue pants, a magenta shirt and a deep violet ponytail.

Varin twirled a kunai lazily around his right index finger, a steady eye scrutinizing his foe as he stepped up to the arena. This curious dark-skinned girl was a berserker in most definitions of the word, so he wouldn't have a hope in Tartarus if he were to try and meet her head-on. His trademark tricks would be needed to stand any chance in this duel.

Iris was itching to show that snake what-for, hopping with excitement up to the battlefield. She'd heard many things about him - much of which was either too fantastical to believe or too mundane to believe - but if she knew anything for sure, it was that anyone who had to trick people to win would cave under her blows like the French. Not that she knew who the French were, of course.

"Combatants, arm yourselves," commanded Professor Mekano.

Varin slipped his kunai back into his left sleeve, before grabbing a metal bar from inside his cloak. He opened it in half to expose a blade, bringing the formerly opposite sides together. Iris, meanwhile, lifted a pair of Ulaks from the holsters at her waist, and crouched into a battle-ready stance.

The lights dimmed, and the professor spoke again. "Ready… Fight!"

Iris gave a mighty battlecry and leapt at Varin, who crouched and… vanished? She came to a halt and looked around, confusion killing her yell.

Then she heard a gunshot, and felt cold grip her left foot. Varin appeared to her left with a revolver in hand - he had just shot her with an Ice Dust bullet, freezing her to the spot! Roaring with anger, she _ripped_ her foot out of the ice and leapt at her opponent.

Varin barely had time to whip his balisword back into her path before she started punching with her hand-blades. Slashing reverse-grip like he was used to, he was startled to find the teeth atop her weapons could snag his blade. Stashing his revolver, he continued to parry her blows, then- BAM! He took an opening and triggered a button on the base of his sword, jabbing her right in the chest with a spring-loaded extention to the weapon's handle.

Iris tumbled back, winded. That last blow had driven a fair bit of breath from her. She looked up, and saw Varin turn his weapon around, now holding it like a naginata.

Fully transformed Witstick in hand, Varin went on the full offensive, using his weapon's range to reach past her fists and strike Iris directly. When she tried to snag the blade, he just swung the back end at her. This was getting frustrating for her, so she did the smart thing: grab her shotgun, point the barrels at his chest, and give him both of them.

The shot sent him flying back, landing on his ass. Quickly glancing at his scroll, he saw that his Aura was in orange. In front of him, Iris was clipping her Ulaks to the barrels of her shotgun, forming a very formidable ax.

Iris was grinning. That little snake was lying on the ground in a daze! She could finish this in one strike, with her patented RyuOnoTaifu attack!

Varin was no stranger to flashy finishers - back at Lumios, it had been the norm for everyone to have such a move. His personal preference was to make the performer screw it up and take advantage of them while they were recoiling from surprise. So when Iris leapt at him while spinning like a top, ax out and ready to slash, he didn't panic - he just tossed three kunai from his left sleeve at her and rolled out of the way.

Iris wasn't expecting any attack from Varin, so those kunai were about as pleasant as diving into an ice-cold pool. In fact, they actually startled her as much too, making her lose focus, drop her ax, and tumble to the ground mere feet before the spot Varin had just been.

…Except she didn't hit the ground. A sharp yank on the back of her head announced itself, causing her to yelp in pain and more surprise. Varin had gotten to his feet and grabbed her ponytail, putting her in something of a compromising situation.

He had just the word for this situation. "Haircut?"

Iris had two in reply. "F*** off."

It was at this point that Varin pulled off a move that would stay with him forever: in one fluid motion, he yanked Iris by the hair up into a kneeling position, leaned back, and gave her a solid kick back into the ground. It would have looked glorious in slow-motion.

Iris was too dazed by meeting the floor to focus.

Varin landed on all fours and ninja'd to the other side of the arena, with the aid of some Wind Dust in his cloak. Standing, he collapsed his naginata into its compact bar form, and swapped it for his revolver. Then he aimed it at Iris, cycled a shot forward, and waited.

It took a few seconds, but she did eventually pry herself off the floor. Seeing as she probably only had a little Aura left in her, Varin decided to fix that. He cycled forward another shot in his revolver, and fired it directly at her.

Iris lifted her head and tried to pull her thoughts together. That snake would pay for that low blow, oh yes he-

A Fire Dust bullet exploded and flung her aside, but she managed to land in a halfway-standing position. Turning to look at Varin, she saw him just standing there, waiting. Rising to a full standing position, she hefted her ax and-

At that moment, a loud buzzer rang out and the lights came on in full.

"Iris, that will do."

Icterine Mekano, the professor who had overseen the match, stepped forward. "Iris Ryuzyu's Aura is now in the red, which means the match goes to Varin Hanro!"

Varin bowed, as the crowd gave their obligatory applause. Ninja'ing one last time to collect his kunai, he walked down the steps to meet with his team, all of whom were in their uniforms.

"Whoa, man, that was EPIC! I mean, her spinning finisher was cool too, but you totally just nulled it like it was nothing! Amazing!" gushed Davy, hopping up and down like a little kid.

"Yeah, you kinda killed the action there for a second," frowned Navy, towering over all of them. "But then again," he relented, "your little trick with her hair _was_ kinda cool."

"Yeah," chuckled Varin in reply. "She kinda… threw me off when she no-selled that Ice Dust bullet, but I got there in the end."

"You let her shoot you in the chest, point-blank," stated Rust. It wasn't an observation, but an accusation. "Why didn't you dodge?"

"Well, I could have if I'd wanted to," Varin retorted. "but my strategy needed her to use her finisher."

Rust gave a 'not bad' face. "Fair call."

Icterine called out again. "The next match will be: Ochre Gaoger versus Diamond Traluce!"

Varin and Navy looked at eachother and spoke in unison. "Dis gun be gud."

Rust gave them an odd look.

Davy clarified. "Grizzly old veteran versus Schnee bootleg. He'll probably see all her moves coming, but will he be able to stand up against them at that age?"


	3. Where Varin volunteers to help Rust

The apron-clad tinkerer was grinning like a dustomaniac at a mage's duel as he put the final touches to the device he was tinkering with. If testing was successful, this would revolutionize Huntsmanship like no other device could! He could imagine it now-

Cool as a cat, a man in a cyan dress shirt and forest-green trousers faded into visibility, sauntering in his direction. He didn't see the newcomer, though, so it wasn't until he felt a finger poke his neck did he turn around. "What?"

The grin on the newcomer's face faded as he beheld the tinkerer's own smiling facade. He spoke:

"Rust, you're smiling. Why are you smiling?"

"Because _this_ baby-" he hoisted the device for the newcomer to see - "is all ready to test!"

"It looks like something a firefighter would use to fight fire with."

"Well yes, I _did_ use a fire hose nozzle as the base for it," Rust admitted, sheepishly scratching the back of his head.

A few beats of awkward silence passed.

"So, what's it called, what's it do?" asked the suited man at last.

Rust's confidence from earlier piqued up again. "This, Varin, is the Portable Aura Replenishment Device (version 2)!" he declared, brandishing it in a heroic manner. "It does exactly what it says in the name."

Varin thought for a second, then laughed out loud.

"What?"

"Don't you know what that could stand for?" chuckled Varin.

Rust bore a perplexed expression. "Uhh... no?" he replied, his prior thunder completely nullified.

"Pee-ay-are-dee-vee-en-two. 'Pardon you'!" Varin barely got it out before he started to guwaff uncontrollably.

Rust could do naught but facepalm, grimacing. After he got that out of his system, he followed it up with a whack of his wrench to the side of Varin's head.

"OW!" Varin recoiled like he was being yanked back on a spring. "That hurt, goddamnit! Hell, you probably made me lose most of my Aura too!"

"Which means we can test now."

Varin blinked for a few seconds, but when the lightbulb finally clicked, it shone like a supernova. "OOOHHH! You clever-cogs!"

"Indeed. Get your Scroll out, and bring up your Aura meter." Varin did so; his Aura was currently at 60% or so. "Ready?"

"Fire away, Rust!"

He pushed forward the handle upon the top of the PARD(vn2). The generator to the side began to buzz with energy, which flowed through the hose to the device. It began to pump out a white cloudy energy that burst out, headed right for Varin. When it hit him, he jumped with surprise – the stuff was tingly! He glanced at his Scroll-

What the-? The meter was going nuts! "TURN THAT THING OFF RIGHT NOW, RUST!"

Rust yanked the handle back, but it took three seconds for the generator to shut down, and a further two for the energy to subside. Worry was plastered all over his face.

"Ohgodohgodohgodohgodohgod, are you okay, Vari-" His concerned question was cut off when he saw what had now happened.

"Rust, this thing cannot read my Aura anymore. Dafuj?" growled a bearded man in a brown apron and goggles.

"...Varin, can you see anything different about yourself?" asked Rust, confused as to why his appearance had changed.

The beared man tossed his Scroll to Rust, then glanced upon himself. "Nope, still wearing cyan and forest-green from my perspective. Why, they look a different colour to you?" he replied.

Rust caught the Scroll and inspected the meter. The reading was rapidly swinging between full and one-fifth. He brought up a mirror from the workbench for the bearded man to look upon himself with.

His jaw dropped. "Holy jick, Rust, I look exactly like you! Beard and all!" Varin – for it was obviously him in a different guise – exclaimed. "How the blark did this happen?"

Rust brought his hand to his face, as if to look thoughtful. "It would appear, based on your Scroll's readings, that your Aura has been forced to go beyond its standard limit of 64 Ki. Consequently, your Semblance of Invisibility is behaving very unusually."

"Correction!" Varin raised a finger, and began to lecture. "Semblances are typically named for the purpose their wielder uses them for. Mine is used not for hiding, but for deception, ergo it should properly be called 'Concealment'." As Varin spoke, though, his appearance began to be clouded by a blue-green mist. "Actually, disguises could be considered a form of concealment, so..." By the time he had finished that last sentence, the mist had cleared, and he was now wearing new clothes – a dress, pink on top and white on bottom, with a silk scarf that flowed behind him, or more appropriately, _her_.

Rust held up the mirror again. "Varin, you now look like someone else." His eyes were wide open with shock.

Varin glanced into the mirror, and saw his new appearance. "Holy blark," he whispered in amazement, noticing his cyan eyes. "Now I look like Professor Valkyrie!" He glanced down at himself, and now he saw the outline of her figure now enveloping him. Thus he decided to test its solidity – by grabbing his illusory bosom.

"Varin!?"

"What? I'm curious to see if I can place my hands on my fake curves!" Varin replied, patting himself down.

"But her bust?!"

"Seemed like a good place to start," Varin shrugged dismissively.

"Look," Rust decided. "Just... stay here and wait for this to all blow over. I'll get your payment to you this evening, and you'll never have to test this if y-"

"Hell no!"

"Eh?" Rust was caught off guard.

"Your gadget can make me look like someone else! That alone is something I wanna use more! I'm sticking with this, who knows what chaos I could cause!" Varin was really hyped by now, and the mist had returned, giving him a black gothic blouse and skirt with red highlights.

Rust lifted the mirror once again. "Now you look like that second-year Ruby girl."

"Oh yeah," Varin mused as he checked his new form out, "isn't she the one with the hilariously big scythe?"

"No second-year at _any_ Huntsman/Huntress academy would be allowed to wield a scythe."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's because she's a _fourth_-year."


	4. Where Davy's secret is discovered

Varin was texting his friends, Nero and Auric, when Davy had poked his head into the dorms, noticed him already there, cursed and slipped off elsewhere.

_Say, mind if I go see what my new partner's up to? He's acting all sneaky and his eyes have turned from green to yellow,_ he sent.

Auric was quick to reply. _Must you?_

Nero's came a few moments later. _Go for it. You're the leader, right? You should know their secrets._

Varin smirked._ Play time! :-D_

* * *

Davy was craving.

He had to get a fix, but if anyone knew of his needs, who knows how they'd react. He just had to get somewhere secluded and unused, and then he could light up all he wanted. He would have done it in his own dorm, but Varin was there texting who-knows-who on his personal scroll.

Poking his head into the gym, Davy fervently scanned the area and listened for people already there. Thankfully, the only person he could hear was all the way off to one side, so he could slip into the changing rooms and ignite there. It helped that he'd worn his slippers here so he could sneak quieter than normal.

Unfortunately, he was off on the headcount by one.

"Hey Davy. Whatcha up to?"

He almost leapt out of his shirt with fright. Navy was right behind him, and he hadn't even heard him!

"Oh, uh… Hey there. Didn't see you there," he managed to squeeze out.

Navy rolled his eyes. "So? Whatcha doing here in the gym? Doesn't look to be anything… clean, if you catch my drift." At Davy's fearful look, he added, "Look, if it's any consolation, you don't seem like the kind of guy I'd care to blackmail."

That just confirmed Davy's suspicions: Navy was an asshole and not to be trusted with his secret. Thankfully, a quick glance at the clock gave him a convenient escape ticket.

"Say, didn't History of Vale start ten minutes ago?"

At first, Navy was bemused. "So? History isn't my favourite subject."

"Funny," chuckled Davy, "because didn't you want to suck up to Professor Valkyrie? You know, the hammer-wiel-"

"JICK!" And with that, Navy was running to class as fast as his legs could carry his bulk. Davy allowed himself a few giggles, before slipping into the gym proper and creeping over to the changing rooms.

* * *

Varin chuckled to himself as Navy ran past him, heading for class. He hadn't taken him for the type to suck up to teachers, but this was likely a special case. Everyone had them, even Varin himself.

As Davy slipped into the changing rooms, Varin used his Illusion semblance to cloak himself and slip in right behind, without him seeing or hearing. Leaping over to the toilets, he dropped into a cubicle from above and prepared to eavesdrop.

He was certainly not expecting Davy to take out a green Dust crystal and waste it on a little breeze.

Or for his eyes to slide from yellow to green to cyan.

_Dustomania? Oh, you have __**got**_ _to be jicking me._


	5. Where Rust gets a new idea

"Gah! HOW THE HELL DOES THAT MAKE ANY SENSE?!"

To say that Rust was frustrated would be a gross understatement.

After Varin had pledged his continued assistance because of the side-effect of his new Portable Aura Replenishment Device, he had gotten back to toning back the power. Unfortunately, it was starting to look like, contrary to his expectations, less power meant _more_ Aura forced into the patient.

He was going to need more Lightning Dust.

"You Rust?"

Rust looked up from his mope session at the desk and noticed the visitor, a young man in a purplish shirt under a studded leather coat, leaning on the dorm door's frame. That, the old jeans, and the slicked-back hair gave him a real 'teenage rebel' look.

"Yes, I am. You're Fandango, right?" he asked, gesturing to him. "Of Team RFOS?"

"Yeah. I hear you're building a gadget to fortify Aura?"

"_Restore_ Aura, actually. I was hoping to take the technology used in hospitals to the frontlines."

"Right," Fandango chuckled, "well, everyone's saying it's an Aura-_boosting_ device."

Rust sighed, facepalming. "God's sake, Varin. Why do you peddle the _side-effect_ of the thing like it's the selling point?"

"Because if the medicinal applications don't work out, it should be."

"Eh?"

"My Semblance is Absorption, of Aura specifically. It lets me take Aura from others, and it doesn't have a limit so far as I know. Quite a few times, I've ended up bolstering my Aura well beyond the standard 100 Ki of the average man, and oh boy is it a thing."

"Go on…" Rust probed. He was beginning to get new ideas already.

Fandango smirked. "Ever seen a guy shoot someone in the chest with a gatling gun for five seconds, only to realize that the guy on the business end had so much Aura it did nothing?"

Rust paled. "_Five seconds?_"

"Five seconds. Took me from 800 Ki to about 550. The asshats never stood a chance. Also, why are you smirking?"

"Because, Fandango," Rust grinned maniacly, "you have just inspired the CABB - the Compact Aura Boosting Belt." _Varin is going to absolutely LOVE this._

* * *

"You're jicking me."

"Not in the least, Varin," Rust grinned. "With this belt, you could look like anyone, take on anyone. You could become a legendary prankster."

With that one line, Varin was sold on the CABB immediately.

"Mr. Hanro, Mr. MacLosef, I trust you're listening to the lecture as well as gossiping?" called out Professor Stalwart, leaning on his Ursa effigy.


	6. Where Team VRDN has breakfast

"So Davy," Rust inquired, "how's the CABB been working out for you?"

Davy swallowed his mouthful of cereal before replying, "It's… odd. My Semblance isn't defined by a single term like most people, so I don't get to be very experimental with how I use it. All I managed to do with the belt was trigger all the Dust and scare all the people in a fifty-metre radius."

"I can imagine Dust spontaneously reacting like that would frighten a few people," Navy smirked, gesturing with his sandwich.

"No, that was my Semblance too," Davy clarified. "It induces fear in people as well as triggering Dust remotely." He gave a small, unenthusiastic chuckle. "It's really weird like that."

_Any connection to your addiction, I wonder?_ Varin pondered as he nibbled on his french toast.

"Right," nodded Rust, jotting down notes. "For my next test, I think I'll skip straight to you, Navy. That slowdown Semblance of yours should have an easy reaction to the CABB to model compared to Davy."

"Sure," Navy shrugged with a mouthful of sandwich.

"Oi, Vez!" someone called to their table from the other side of the cafeteria.

Varin looked up from his plate, and was pleasantly surprised to recognise the violet-haired young man jogging towards them from the right. "Dusk! I was wondering when you'd notice me!" he cheerfully called back, waving.

"Who's this, your senpai?" Navy snarked.

Varin couldn't help but bust his gut with laughter at that.

"I see you've got at least one teammate with your sense of humor, Varin," oberved Dusk dryly, walking up to behind Varin.

"Yeah," Varin giggled, calming down. "Guys, this is Dusk. He's an old friend of mine, and I was wondering when we could meet again in person."

"You know a third-year?" asked Rust incredulously.

"In both senses," joked Varin.

Everyone on his team just stared at him confusedly.

"Firstly, what the jick do you think you're doing hinting at that?" Dusk growled, pointing with the textbook on Grimm he'd been carrying. "And secondly, not yet you haven't."

"Uhh… what?" Rust was oddly unarticulate.

"Wait, there's another meaning for 'know'?" Davy pondered.

"Evidently," Rust mused, confused.

"Seriously, Dusk? You know a first-year?" smirked another older student, approaching from the left.

"Yes Ruby, I do," sighed Dusk with a roll of his eyes.

"Ah, Miss Sangui! We are blessed to be in your presence!" Varin smuckled, pulling off an impressive bow in her direction despite being seated in a direction more than ninety degrees off and sitting between Rust and Navy.

"Suckup," snickered Navy.

Ruby prepared to make a derogatory remark to Dusk about socializing with subordinates, but something about Varin made her stop herself. "Varin, isn't it? You wouldn't happen to know of the book _Tainted Rose_, would you?"

"Know it?" Varin chuckled. "I've written fanfics of it!"

Rust and Navy rolled their eyes, while Davy 'ooh'ed at him, and Dusk pondered.

"So have I," Ruby observed. "Meet me after breakfast." With that, she turned and left.

"I didn't know you wrote fanfiction!" Davy observed.

"Shows what you know," smiled Varin, returning to his french toast.

"Hey, Dusk? Neo's trying to get at your food!" a guy called from the table Dusk had come from.

Dusk's eyes went pinprick-narrow. "Catchyalatergottasavemybaconliterally!" he called as he raced back to his table, leaving Varin to spit his french toast back out from more gut-busting laughter.

* * *

"So how are you involved in the Rose empire?"

Varin jumped. He'd forgotten Ruby had wanted to speak with him about that. "Eh, I'm just an assassin. Expensive, but effective."

"Then… why did you use the highest level of indicator?"

Varin just smiled, winked, and dissapeared in a puff of green smoke.

Ruby blinked a few times, confused. _Was that__… No, he couldn't be!_ she thought to herself, shaking her head. _His Semblance is the wrong colour, and other people can have red eyes too!_

Varin, on the other hand, had thoughts of his own. _Seriously? Carnelian's here as well? No, wait, it could still be someone else. Better check with Auric at some point._


End file.
